


Konoha City Streets

by imaginaryari (adrenalinsoo)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cyberpunk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-01-23 02:20:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18540328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrenalinsoo/pseuds/imaginaryari
Summary: Private detectives Ino-Shika-Cho investigate a kidnapping/homicide





	1. Distant Beacons

**Author's Note:**

> a cyberpunk noir i guess

Shikamaru isn’t woken by his alarm or his wife but instead his phone blaring from his nightstand. Temari continues to sleep like the dead as he reads the message from Ino on his comm. 

[ get here now we have work ]

He groans. Lies back down for thirty seconds. Then gets up to get dressed. He instructs the home assistant to tell Temari he’s been called in and heads out. 

There are very few reasons Ino would call him in at 4 in the morning and Shikamaru knows it’s important. Still, he would like to make back that hour of sleep. He presses tenth floor on the elevator, but the doors are blocked by a hand. Chouji smiles and enters. 

“She tell you anything?” Shikamaru asks.

“Other than get here? No.” 

Typical. 

At least 3 of Shikamaru’s questions are answered once the elevator doors open. For one there’s Ino pouring coffee for their client: A Hyuuga clone. Not just any one though, Hinata whose face occupies half the LED screens in the city. The heiress. 

Shikamaru is immediately intimidated at her presence. What could a billionaire need with their team? 

“Hinata, these are my colleagues, Chouji and Shikamaru,” Ino introduces them so casually that Shikamaru almost forgets to bow. ‘Are they...friends?’

He doesn’t get to ask before Ino shuffles them into her office, abd tints the glass walls for extra privacy. 

“Thank you for seeing me, Ino. I know this is such short notice but it’s urgent.” Hinata’s voice is quiet but clear like chimes in the wind. “My daughter was kidnapped, and someone murdered my father.”

Ino gives Shikamaru and Chouji a pointed look. One that usually means “don’t mention the cloning or I’ll kill you.” Chouji shifts in his seat and Shikamaru clears his throat.

“When?” Shikamaru offers instead.

“Sometime last night.” She says wringing her hands together. “No one saw them come in. Her pod was gone. The security cams were tampered with. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“If I may ask, why not call ANBU?” Chouji offers. 

“Because they’ll make it public. Himawari is my secret.” Her voice cracks but her face never shifts from the dull, unblinking stare. 

Of course, Shikamaru thinks this would make Hinata look weak and by extension the Hyuuga’s. A crack in their expensively designed armor. A facade. 

“You have our word.” Ino says since she calls all the shots. 

—  
The Hyuuga’s themselves are intimidating. Their place of residence even more so. The apartments on the mid floors made of special glass and screens to make it appear to be floating. Given time it might be. 

Hinata leads them to a lab of her own, specifically built to aide in her creation of Himawari. Shikamaru notes the sheer level of security. 

The crime scene is exactly how Shikamaru thought it would look, except neater. Unsettlingly so. Hiashi Hyuuga’s body hadn’t even left more than a few drops of blood. Only proof of his death being the gash in his neck and destroyed optics. 

Ino walks around the lab, eyes scanning and taking photos. “Is this where her pod was?” The blonde asks approaching a set of loose tubing and wires hanging from the ceiling. Hinata affirms with a nod. 

“That’s strange,” Chouji remarks. “Have you spoken to the floors security team?”

“I tried. They didn’t see anything unusual.”

“His optics are destroyed,” Ino says. “The killer was cautious.”

“We might still be able to get some data from them. The visible part of the optics are just cameras.” Hinata states. 

“Can you extract the data?” Ino asks Hinata. 

“I can try.”

The feed of Hiashi’s last moments starts out extremely clear. There is however no audio, damaged in the blow that killed him. He enters Hinata’s lab hours after she had left. Hinata sighs at the sight of Himawari in her pod, asleep. 

He disconnected the pod. Trying to move her. The visual begins to static before going black. 

“Wait go back,” Ino says. Hinata gives her a confused glare but rewinds anyway. “Right there!” Hinata pauses at Ino’s command. 

“He was ambushed.” Chouji says. Pointing to the screen. There’s a reflection in the pod of course if Hiashi but another hooded figure behind him. 

“But how?” Hinata asks. “No one could have snuck in behind him. The guards would have stopped them.”

“Not if he let the intruder in.” Shikamaru says and immediately regrets it with the resounding silence. Shit, he needs to work on being more empathetic-

“Yeah that makes sense.” Hinata says.

Oh. He’s not a complete fuck up then. 

“It would explain why the guards said they didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. If he let the intruder in they wouldn’t have questioned it.” 

“But doesn’t that mean they saw the intruder?” Chouji asks. “They’d be on someone’s feed then.”

“I’ll check all of them but it’s gonna take a while.” Hinata sighs.  
—

“What do you guys think?” Ino asks after they’ve left the Hyuuga establishment and reconvened back at their office. The desk is an organized mess of the digital evidence they’ve collected so far. The video Hinata was able to pull on loop, a list of everyone who knew about Himawari, and the shots of the crime scene Ino took. 

“Hiashi was definitely in on it. I just don’t see a motive.” Chouji says resting his head on his hand. 

“Why would her father try to get rid of his granddaughter?” Ino asks. 

“That’s what I keep asking. But whoever killed him had to have been familiar to the guards.” Chouji responds. 

“Yeah, the security is ridiculously tight. My guess it’s another Hyuuga responsible.” Shikamaru pitches. 

“So... What’s the motive?” Chouji says almost exasperated. 

“A power move maybe.” Ino finally speaks up. 

“Care to elaborate?”

“Well you know how the Hyuuga’s have a hierarchy? This could have been a play to put someone else in charge, like Hisashi.” Ino shakes her head but continues. “We should look into Neji and Hanabi to be sure.” 

“Why Himawari though? Why take her? Why not just destroy her?”

“See, that’s where my doubts lie,” Ino answers. “A newly created clone has less incentive to be loyal to them.” 

“Kidnapper is in it for the long haul then.” Shikamaru says with a yawn.

“They had to put the pod somewhere then.” Ino realizes. 

Chouji furrows his brows. “Yeah? What are you getting at?”

Ino stands and starts to pace. “They couldn’t have gotten very far away from the lab. They wanted her alive if they went through the trouble of taking the whole pod. That means they had somewhere to place her.” 

“It’s not like there’s random pod links around the city either. How many organizations use them?” Chouji asks, using the desk to display a map of the city. 

“Aside from the Hyuuga’s there was someone in Rain who had one but it was destroyed; It’d too far out anyway,” Ino recalls. “What’s this one?” She points to one of the dots on the map. 

“Says here the lab belongs to some gene scientist Konoha locked up for a short while.” Shikamaru says. 

“It’s a place to start.” Ino stretches her arms above her head. “You go check that out. Chouji and I will talk to Hinata’s friends.”

“Speaking of friends, how are you friends with Hinata of all people?”

Ino gives Shikamaru a confused look. “...’Cause I can?”

“You didn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t us or Sakura for half your life.” Chouji points out. 

“Okay but like it wasn’t like I wasn’t capable of making friends.”

“You are capable. Hinata on the other hand…” Shikamaru starts. 

“Is what?” Ino dares him to finish his thought. 

“She’s weird, okay she creeps me out.”

“Keep that to yourself she pays very well.” Ino says packing up her stuff to go. “And she’s shy so be considerate.”

Shikamaru rolls his eyes. Ino hadn’t even answered his question.


	2. City Lights

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Interrogations

Hinata has a tight group of friends who just so happen to be famous. Chouji’s been tasked with finding and interrogating Shino, the heir to the Aburame tech company. They specialize in nano tech and drones but suspiciously their name is on every piece of technology in Konoha. If that’s not creepy enough no one has actually seen their faces. Shikamaru once described them as a two way mirror. Chouji now agrees upon entering their complex which buzzes with too many drones to count. 

“I’m here on behalf of Hinata Hyuuga.” 

“Hinata doesn’t send proxies.” A disembodied voice responds. Chouji doesn’t know where to look as a few of the drones size him up.

“Really? She informed me that she called you already.” Chouji says crossing his arms. 

The drones back off. “Are you Chouji?” The voice comes again. 

“Detective Akimichi but sure yeah. Chouji.”

“Oh… uh just follow the bugs and come on up.” 

-

“Sorry about that. Although I do wanna know why Hinata is sending detectives to my workspace.” Shino doesn’t remove his face mask or his shades. Chouji notes they are way too dark to be sunglasses and realizes they’re monitors. If they didn’t cost an ungodly amount of units Chouji would invest. 

“Good thing I’m going to explain all that then. Do you know Himawari Hyuuga?”

“I know that you shouldn’t.” Shino says defensively. “I’m one of her god fathers.”

“How long have you known about her?” Chouji asks.

“Since Hinata started creating her.” Chouji can’t see Shino’s suspicious glare but knows it’s there. 

“Really? How often do you see her?”

“Where is this questioning going detective?” Shino asks audibly annoyed. 

“Himawari has been kidnapped.”

This finally pulls a visible reaction from Shino. He sits up straighter and the drone in the room falters just a bit. “Impossible.”

“Yeah?” Chouji sighs. “Where were you last night Aburame?”

Shino doesn’t answer, instead taps his desk and pulls up a feed time stamped for last night. A woman and a young girl had come into the Aburame building, the both of them Chouji already familiar with. 

“You babysat Mirai.”

“Yeah. Kiba was busy and Hinata of course barely leaves the lab nowadays.” Shino sighs, lets his head fall into his hands. 

Chouji pities the man but can’t offer much in comfort. “If anything keep your ‘eyes’ open Aburame. If anyone could help find her it’s you.”

Shino considers this and nods. 

“Thank you for your cooperation.” 

—  
Ino had volunteered to talk to Kiba. Their paths always cross in the weirdest ways but because of this she knows just how to speak to him. No offense to Chouji and Shikamaru but Ino just knows Chouji wouldn’t get the info they need and Kiba still wants Shikamaru dead for an offhand comment he made as a teenager. So really it had to be her. 

She’s barely entered the grounds before she hears “It’s been a while Yamanaka.” He lands in front of her from seemingly nowhere, ever the showoff. “What brings you here?”

“Can we talk where there aren’t a thousand people?” The Inuzuka grounds are always full of people. Hybrid soldiers come here to train as well as just hang out. It’s been a few years since Ino has been here and it’s still has the cozy feel. Kiba leads them to his assigned quarters. 

“Still the only man on the grounds?” Ino asks. It’s a random fact she remembers that makes him a likeable person in her eyes. A man who has no choice but to respect women since he’s outnumbered. 

“Kakashi came back to us a few months back. Ma was glad to see him.” Kiba reclines back with his feet on the table. “How’s the kid?”

“Learning entirely too fast.” Ino answers taking a seat across from him. “Speaking of kids. What did you know how Himawari?” 

Kiba almost tips over. Ino refrains from laughing because she’s here to work. He rights himself, plants his feet on the floor and coughs. “Why are you asking?”

“Our friend Hinata hired me to question you. Sorry this is a work visit.”

“Of course it is. We can’t just talk like normal people huh?” 

“We’re talking like normal people right now.”

Kiba glares. “Himawari was a secret so something bad must have happened if she told you about her.” 

“Kidnapped last night. Culprit killed Hiashi in the process.” Ino says always getting straight to the point. 

“And Hinata didn’t immediately call me?!” Kiba yells, defensive. 

“Calm down hothead,” Ino says. “She didn’t call anyone who knew about Himawari because anyone who did could be responsible.” 

“So I’m a suspect?”

“Unless you provide me with an airtight alibi.” Ino says. 

“I was entertaining guests.”

“Guests?”

“A guest. Kankuro came into the city yesterday evening. Planning on surprising Temari. Don’t tell the husband I’ll have to kill him.”

“I didn’t hear that last part.” Ino says pointedly. 

Kiba grins, pulls out his comm device. “You can look through that for your proof or whatever. We went out to eat and then crashed here.”

Sure enough, Ino finds a receipt for their food and a bunch of photos taken proving they were together the whole night. She’d comment on how cute some of them were but she is still working. 

“Thank you for your time Inuzuka.” Ino says handing back the comm device. 

“Do you guys have any other leads on who could have taken her?” Kiba asks. 

“Can’t say. Classified. But thank you for cooperating.” 

“Wait,” Kiba stops her before she can step out. “Before you go give me your number.”

“What? Why?” Ino stares suspiciously. 

“One day we are going to hang out as friends because this meet-weird shit is getting old. Fair?”

Ino laughs, genuinely. “Yeah that’s fair. We can hang when we celebrate finding Himawari.” 

—

The gene scientist Shikamaru’s been sent to investigate lives near the border of the city. A pain for Shikamaru to travel with all the traffic, but gets there eventually confirming his team is en route to meet up with him after. 

Shikamaru doesn’t know what to expect. The modest home definitely isn’t it. The high security surrounding the modest home is expected although jarring. He makes it to the front gate and is met with a screen embedded in one of the posts. It flickers to life before he can reach to open the gate. 

“Who are you?” A tiny voice says. Shikamaru can’t see past the child’s mop of white hair and glowing yellow eyes. ‘The features people give children nowadays’

“I’m Detective Nara. I’m looking for Orochimaru.” The child doesn’t answer and instead squints its eyes at him. Shikamaru grows impatient when someone else picks up the child removing him from the frame. “I’m sorry, Detective was it? Orochimaru isn’t here.” 

The person speaking now is older but has the same face as the child from earlier, minus the glowing eyes which Shikamaru is grateful for. 

“Last I checked they're still on house arrest no? Unless you wanna tell me they're breaking the law by stepping out.” Shikamaru says, trying not to relish in the panicked look on the older child’s face. 

“Let him in Log. Stop wasting the detectives time.”

—  
Orochimaru looks exactly like the photos Shikamaru has seen in many textbooks as a child. Knowing those photos were taken over 50 years ago is a testament to their work. The same work that has them serving time once again. The only thing keeping them from a jail cell is the two faces that greeted Shikamaru. 

“Tea?” Orochimaru asks offering a mug to Shikamaru. The detective politely turns it down and Orochimaru shrugs finally taking a seat. 

“I apologize for the kids Log is very defensive. Teenagers am I right?” The scientist jokes. 

“I wouldn’t know.” Shikamaru says with a shrug. Shikamaru eyes a frame with an endless slideshow of family photos and videos. There’s Orochimaru, the two kids, two more faces he doesn’t recognize, and then a face everyone’s knows because he’s the reason Orochimaru is under scrutiny. Jiraya has been dead a while now, one of the cities most decorated soldiers. As much as he’s missed, it is illegal to bring back the dead. 

“I have to ask where you keep your pod link.”

Orochimaru takes a very long, obnoxious sip of their tea. “Can I ask why detective?”

“A young clone was kidnapped and the culprit managed to take her whole pod. There’s not a lot of links in the city and you have one of your very own. Only makes sense to check it.”

“Yes but that would imply you think someone in this house did so. I can assure you I have an airtight alibi.” They cross their legs bringing the leg with the flickering red dot of light forward. “My leg would be blown off if I attempted that.”

“I didn’t assume anything doc, I’m just doing my job. Where’s the pod link?” Shikamaru presses. 

Orochimaru rolls their eyes. “Follow me.”

—

Shikamaru doesn’t see the point in Orochimaru’s lab being this much work to get to. Everyone knows who they are and what they do, at this point the secrecy is redundant and an attempt to show off. Someone else can be impressed. 

The lab has the same tech as the one Hinata has led the team to except it isn’t as bright and shows no sign of recent activity. “My lab assistant is out. He was manning everything while I was in court.” 

“He will be questioned too.” Shikamaru says. 

“My kids as well? Are they suspects too Detective Nara?” Orochimaru asks. 

“Minors cannot be questioned without permission from legal guardian.” Shikamaru answers. “Open the pod.”

Orochimaru lets out a hmph but makes their way towards the pod. A few beeps later the pod is awakened. 

And there’s Himarwari.

**Author's Note:**

> imaginaryari on tumblr if you also want to talk to me there


End file.
